UK has 'two weeks' to protect against major computer virus

The UK has a "two week period" to protect itself from a major computer virus that could give hackers access to sensitive information - costing the country millions of pounds, the National Crime Agency has said.

Russia does not extradite accused criminals to other countries, so hacker Evgeniy Bogachev may never be charged in a US court.

Top FBI official James Cole said: "We are in contact with (Russia) and we've been having discussions with them about moving forward and about trying to get custody of Mr. Bogachev," but he declined to provide further details.

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A small business owner from Birkenhead lost £100,000 "in three minutes" after one his employees unwittingly opened an email infected with the Zeus virus.

Jonathan Kemp, who runs varnish producer AEV Ltd, told Good Morning Britain their accounts manager opened an email claiming to be from HMRC on the same day cooperation tax was due before entering in confidential banking information.

An illustrated picture shows a magnifying glass magnifying the source code of a computer virus in Berlin. Credit: DPA

The US has revealed more details about the attack by a band of hackers who implanted viruses on hundreds of thousands of computers around the world, seized customers' bank information and stole more than 100 million dollars (£60m) from businesses and consumers.

In one scheme, the criminals infected computers with malicious software that captured bank account numbers and passwords, then used that information to secretly divert millions from victims' bank accounts to themselves.

In another, they locked hacking victims out of their own computers, secretly encrypted personal files on the machines and returned control to the users only when ransom payments of several hundred dollars were made.

The FBI has pressed charges against a Russian man who they believe is behind the malicious software which wiped out millions of dollars from its victims around the world.

The alleged administrator is Evgeniy Bogachev, 30, from Anapa in Russia, who the FBI suspects is leading a tightly knit gang of cyber criminals based in Russia and Ukraine that is responsible for the development and operation of both the GameOver Zeus and Cryptolocker schemes.

The design of a new powerful malware makes it "nearly impossible" to completely wipe out, but a coordinated response by the authorities can control it, computer security expert said.

Lamar Bailey, director of security research and development at software company Tripwire, said countries are rolling out a programme to clean up infected computers, asking users to update their security systems.